There is an increasing use of small-scale alternative energy sources to supplement traditional energy sources to fulfill power consumption demands, which can often include controlling the climate of a building. Two general types of energy sources will be discussed in this specification: intermittent and on-demand. An intermittent energy source is an energy source that is activated and deactivated by the occurrence of events that are not controlled by the system; examples include wind turbines or solar panels, as their productivity is determined by the wind and sun respectively. An on-demand energy source is an energy source that can be activated at will, such as a fossil fuel furnace or an electrical heater. In general, intermittent energy sources are forms of renewable energy and thus are desirable for reasons of being cheaper and more environmentally friendly for a building manager to use. For the purposes of this specification, a building manager is anyone who has control over the climate settings of a building, whether it is residential or commercial.
Regarding climate control systems where the intermittent energy source assists with heating, in colder months with high heating requirements, the intermittent energy source may only be expected to reduce the consumption of on-demand energy sources to meet heating needs. In these conditions, a building manager might set the climate of a room to parameters which provide only adequate comfort in order to minimize on-demand energy usage. Conversely, during warmer months with low heating requirements, the intermittent energy source may provide capacity far in excess of heating needs, eliminating the need for on-demand energy. In these conditions, a building manager would be expected to set climate parameters to those that are optimal without fear of using the on demand energy source.
Alternatively, for climate control systems where the intermittent energy source assists with cooling, in warmer months with high cooling requirements, the intermittent energy source may only be expected to reduce the consumption of on-demand energy sources to meet cooling needs. In these conditions, a building manager might set the climate of a room to parameters which provide only adequate comfort in order to minimize on-demand energy usage. Conversely, during colder months with low cooling requirements, the intermittent energy source may provide capacity far in excess of cooling needs, eliminating the need for on-demand energy. In these conditions, a building manager would be expected to set climate parameters to those that are optimal without fear of using the on demand energy source.
However, in many cases, there exists a difference between optimal climate conditions and those that are set to use a minimal amount of on-demand energy. In certain environmental conditions likely to occur during “shoulder” seasons between colder and warmer months, the energy reserve created by the intermittent energy source may occasionally surpass conditions where it would otherwise need to be supplemented by the on-demand energy source to meet the building's climate needs, while the climate controls remain set to energy-saving levels. An attentive building manager could harness this otherwise wasted energy by raising or lowering the temperature limit of the thermostat(s) in the building to take advantage of this opportunity for greater comfort and to get ahead of the heating demand, but unless he remained vigilant, he would run the risk of using the on-demand energy source when the reserve energy from the intermittent source dissipates. This invention allows the building manager to allocate surplus thermal energy throughout the building only as available without needing to manually change the temperature settings which determine when the on-demand energy source is used.
Prior art teaches systems that use both intermittent and on-demand energy sources to regulate the climate of a building, as exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 8,041,461. However, while the prior art is directed to efficient use of intermittent energy sources, it does not teach multiple levels of climate temperatures according to reserve energy levels, but rather assumes fixed climate parameters.
Prior art that teaches conditional energy management does not do so in a way that would be instructive to a building manager wishing to minimize the use of on-demand energy sources while maximizing the comfort level of the climate within a building. Examples of this prior art include US 2003/0009265 A1 and US 2012/0086273 A1. This prior art is directed at reducing the peak load to a larger electrical grid, as a way of minimizing the amount of equipment, and therefore expense, required to handle peak electrical loads. As such, it does not address the situation of a building that has access to both an intermittent energy reserve and an on-demand energy source controlled by a building manager who wishes to selectively limit the usage of on-demand energy while maximizing the comfort level of the climate within a building, with no care to peak load. Alone or in combination, the prior art would not teach the changing of climate parameters in response to an established energy reserve from an intermittent source.
Thus, there is exists a need within the art to allow a building manager to set more desired climate conditions only during times when doing so would not increase usage of an on-demand energy source. The conditional climate control system disclosed herein attempts to fill that need and maximize system performance while reducing the expense and environmental impact incurred by a building manager.